Fixed Wireless antennae and range etc.....

Hello all, I will soon ( in a few months ) be hopefully getting fixed wireless broadband via LN Comms (wwww.ilovebroadband.co.uk) and have some technical queries about antennae etc...

I appear to be slightly outside the coverage area, although I have spoken to the team and they suggest it could be fine, I may just need a different antennae to account for distance?

In terms of the antenna I haven't been able to spot any local examples of them as most of the spots I drive through have fttc etc.... Any makes and models that are the usual suspects for this type of connection would be appreciated (so I can google images them!)

I'm guessing for a longer distance the antenna would be a dish-like device ?

Fingers crossed I can get a good signal where I am going (North Yorkshire, sproxton) as otherwise it's looking like 3mb BT rubbish maximum!

Re: Fixed Wireless antennae and range etc.....

Almost all fixed wireless operators rely primarily upon Ubiquiti equipment, at least at the consumer end - see www.ubnt.com/products/ .

Consumer antennas are getting smaller. The standard ones used to be the NanoStation M5 for longer distances (up to 3-4 miles) between the property and the relay/repeater or the NanoStation Loco M5 for shorter distances (up to 2 miles). Both are shallow rectangular boxes. They have a relatively wide beamwidth - both horizontally and vertically - so they don't have to aligned very accurately and can operate well on the margins of the coverage zone.

Some WISPs are switching to the circular NanoBeam M5-16 or M5-19. These have more powerful wirelesses than the equivalently-priced NanoStations but the wireless is more directional so it is necessary to align them correctly.

If you are more than 4-5 miles from an antenna or have a partially obscured line of sight, then the WISP may install an antenna that is akin to a small satellite dish - usually the NanoBeam M5-300 or M5-400. At this range, the distinction between Point-to-Multi-Point (PtMP) equipment used for consumer equipment and Point-to-Point (PtP) used for businesses and dedicated links begins to break down.

Other manufacturers - Mikrotik, Cambium, Mimosa, etc - offer decent equipment but they tend to be more expensive than Ubiquiti and are more likely to be used for PtP links. The market is in flux at the moment because a variety of suppliers are introducing equipment that complies with the 803.11ac wireless standard (the older stuff is all 803.11n) in order to offer faster speeds.

Each supplier has a proprietary implementation of the standard so it is usually not possible to mix and match equipment at the two ends of a link. The base cost of consumer equipment is about £120 (incl VAT) plus installation, so no WISP is going to offer much choice unless you are willing to pay for an upgrade.

Re: Fixed Wireless antennae and range etc.....

There are dish type aerials for longer distances and also flat panels. We almost exclusively use flat panels and only have a few dishes at present.

Distance wise the primary considerations are obstructions in the way and aerial height / the curvature of the earth!

If they normally use say a 16dBi gained aerial device then there is plenty of scope to go up to 24dBi or even higher (although they get quite large above this).

the difference in range between 16 and 24 is significant with 8dB more signal. the Decibel is a logarithmic figure , for example 10dB is 10 times stronger , 7 dB is 5 times stronger , 3dB is double etc..

Hello all, I will soon ( in a few months ) be hopefully getting fixed wireless broadband via LN Comms (wwww.ilovebroadband.co.uk) and have some technical queries about antennae etc...

I appear to be slightly outside the coverage area, although I have spoken to the team and they suggest it could be fine, I may just need a different antennae to account for distance?

In terms of the antenna I haven't been able to spot any local examples of them as most of the spots I drive through have fttc etc.... Any makes and models that are the usual suspects for this type of connection would be appreciated (so I can google images them!)

I'm guessing for a longer distance the antenna would be a dish-like device ?

Fingers crossed I can get a good signal where I am going (North Yorkshire, sproxton) as otherwise it's looking like 3mb BT rubbish maximum!

Re: Fixed Wireless antennae and range etc.....

My attention was focused on the topic of my question, and the topic of the forum. I am concerned with the technical aspects of this forum and not the correctness of how posts are typed up, being an engineer myself I am aware that technically minded individuals are not necessarily the best writers or typists and am more than willing to turn a blind eye to poor grammar, spelling etc...

I believe that posts such as yours, in this particular thread, are detrimental to the spirit of this forum and end up deterring users from making posts or asking questions rather than presenting what is mostly a welcoming and considerate community.

Many thanks for correcting my ERROR, I shall ensure it will not be repeated.